Book Review: Almost A Crime By Penny Vincenzi
Posted by Jessica on October 10, 2011
Tom and Octavia Fleming have what the media likes to call a “power marriage”. As well as having three children, they run their own highly successful companies and are always ready to share their individual expertise to help the other. They’re portrayed in the press as the perfect modern couple, and are much sought after at public functions for the glamour that surrounds them. If, perhaps, they don’t get to spend enough quality time either with one another or their children, the rewards make the sacrifice worthwhile.
Then, with appalling suddenness, their carefully ordered life seems set to collapse around them. Octavia makes the devastating discovery that Tom is having an affair, and Tom loses a vital client which takes his business to the brink of ruin. To make matters worse, someone seems intent on sabotaging not only Tom’s company, but any hope he and Octavia might have had of repairing their marriage. Only now does it become apparent exactly how precariously balanced their life together was, and how easily it could come crashing down. Picking up the pieces turns out to be an awful lot harder. In fact, it’s doubtful whether it can even be done.
Long as it is, Almost a Crime kept me riveted from beginning to end with its complex relationships, company politics and cleverly woven subplots. I honestly couldn’t put it down! Most of all, I loved the way the characters developed in response to the troubles confronting them. Octavia, always dominated by her overprotective father, painfully insecure and terribly serious, gradually gains confidence and the ability to laugh at herself. Tom, on the other hand, faced with the prospect of losing everything that’s important to him, is stripped of the arrogance I initially so disliked. By the end, much to my surprise, I found myself sincerely hoping these two would succeed in salvaging their marriage.
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